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100-746: The word tribune is derived from the Roman tribes . The three original tribes known as the Ramnes or Ramnenses , Tities or Titienses, and the Luceres, were each headed by a tribune, who represented each tribe in civil, religious, and military matters. Subsequently, each of the Servian tribes was also represented by a tribune. Under the Roman Kingdom , the tribunus celerum , in English tribune of

200-468: A cavalry vexillatio . As tribounos , the title survived in the East Roman army until the early 7th century. From the use of tribunus to describe various military officers is derived the word tribunal , originally referring to a raised platform used to address the soldiers or administer justice. Military tribunes are featured in notable works of historical fiction, including Ben-Hur: A Tale of

300-441: A close ally of Sulla's, Quintus Lutatius Catulus . He also abolished the grain dole and Roman state's subsidies to control food prices in the city. He also, as dictator, expanded Rome's sacred city boundary, the pomerium . Sulla resigned from his dictatorship at the end of 81 and promptly took office as consul for 80. Conceiving "of his dictatorship in quasi-republican terms, as a special office undertaken to... [establish]

400-498: A coherent attack on Sulla's legacy. Other portions of his reforms remained (co-option to the priestly colleges remained until 63) and the consuls did not actively support the bill to change the composition of the permanent court juries. The changed number of magistrates also persisted, as did Sulla's laws on treason and Sulla's stripping of civil rights from the descendants of proscribed persons (those civil disabilities would only be lifted under Caesar's rule in 49). Major elements in

500-560: A constitutional (republican) form of government" and imagining himself as a lawgiver, he became ordinary consul in the first year of his new republic. After his consulship, he retired and died in 78, with his funeral held in Rome at public expense, to the dismay of one of the then-consuls, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus . His republic would prove to be a failure: "the content, style, and origins of Sulla's new republic were too revolutionary and too foreign to last in Rome" after his demise. The role of

600-612: A patrician was being adopted into a plebeian family. By the late republic, each curia was represented by only one lictor , usually under the presidency of the pontifex maximus . According to the Roman tradition, Servius Tullius , the sixth king (traditionally r.  579 – 534 BC ), abolished the Romulean tribes (though not the curiae ) and re-divided the city into four urban tribes and twenty-six pagi which coalesced into seventeen rural tribes. The names of

700-407: A return to traditional Roman practice [but] many were nothing of the sort"; "Sulla was definitely not trying to 'turn back the clock', let alone to any particular period in Roman history". The rigidly legalised constitution, based on a system of laws enforced by senatorial courts, that Sulla put forward "did not correspond to the Roman experience of a traditional republic... based on deliberation in

800-409: A senatorial career. Each tribune would be assigned to command a portion of the Roman army, subordinate to the magistrates and promagistrates appointed by the senate, and their legates. Within each of the legions , various middle-ranking officers were also styled tribune . These officers included: In the late Roman army, a tribunus was a senior officer, sometimes called a comes , who commanded

900-556: A series of laws enacted by the Roman dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla between 82 and 80 BC, reforming the constitution of the Roman Republic in a revolutionary way. In the decades before Sulla had become dictator, Roman politics became increasingly violent. Shortly before Sulla's first consulship, the Romans fought the bloody Social War against their Italian allies, victorious mostly due to their immediate concession on

1000-440: Is uncertain. The enrollment of new citizens in particular tribes became a significant political issue during the censorship of Appius Claudius Caecus in 312 BC. Those who wished to limit the voting power of the lower social orders, and particularly of freedmen, advocated enrolling them only in the four urban tribes. This effort was largely unsuccessful, except with respect to freedmen, who were nearly always enrolled in one of

1100-405: The divisores coordinated gifts among tribesmen and were regularly implicated in electoral bribery during the late republic. Further officers included a curator tribuum , who served as the head of the tribe, and tribuni aerarii , or tribunes of the treasury, whose responsibility was for the tribe's financial obligations; they were responsible for collecting the war tax, and distributed pay to

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1200-703: The First Mithridatic War to Gaius Marius . The cause of Sulla's first march on Rome was a secondary issue in the politics of the day: Sulpicius had brought the bill to reassign the Mithridatic command to curry favour with Marius to support granting the Italians full citizenship rights in the aftermath of the Social War. After marching on the city, Sulla drove a number of politicians, including Marius, into exile under threat of death and left for

1300-724: The Rape of the Sabine Women , the Sabines under Titus Tatius attacked Rome, and successfully entered the city. After fierce fighting, the Sabine women themselves interceded, stepping between their husbands and their fathers to prevent further bloodshed. Peace was concluded, with Romulus and Tatius ruling jointly, and a large Sabine population relocating to Rome. The nascent city was thus evenly divided between Latins and Sabines. After this, traditionally dated to 750 BC, Romulus created

1400-612: The Roman Empire , the tribunes continued to be elected, but had lost their independence and most of their practical power. The office became merely a step in the political careers of plebeians who aspired toward a seat in the senate. The tribuni militum, known in English as military tribunes or literally, tribunes of the soldiers , were elected each year along with the annual magistrates. Their number varied throughout Roman history, but eventually reached twenty-four. These were usually young men in their late twenties, who aspired to

1500-493: The Roman Republic . According to tradition, the first three tribes were established by Romulus ; each was divided into ten curiae , or wards, which were the voting units of the comitia curiata . Although the curiae continued throughout Roman history, the three original tribes that they constituted gradually vanished from history. Perhaps influenced by the original division of the people into tribes, as well as

1600-406: The collegia of the pontifices , augures , and the decemviri sacrorum . The comitia could pass resolutions proposed by the tribunes of the plebs, or by the higher magistrates, on both domestic and foreign matters, such as the making of treaties or concluding of peace. Proposals had to be published before receiving a vote, and were passed or rejected as a whole, without modification. Although

1700-442: The comitia centuriata , which also presided over certain capital trials, and held the power to declare war, and to pass legislation presented by the senate. Lesser magistrates were elected by the comitia tributa , which also elected religious officials, presided over trials affecting the plebeians, and passed resolutions based on legislation proposed by the tribunes of the plebs and various magistrates. The comitia curiata retained

1800-443: The comitia tributa of the power to declare war or conclude peace; the early emperors further curtailed its power. Augustus removed the comitia's judicial function, and preserved its power to pass legislation only in form. He filled half of the available magistracies with his own candidates, and Tiberius transferred the comitia's remaining electoral authority to the senate. Although the emperors received many of their powers from

1900-491: The comitia tributa , this was only a formality. Although the comitia tributa continued to exist until the third century AD, its only remaining functions were symbolic; it took auspices and gave prayer; it conferred the emperor's legislative powers and other authority; and it proclaimed the laws presented to it for approval. But by this time voting was done not by ballot, but by acclamatio . Constitutional reforms of Sulla The constitutional reforms of Sulla were

2000-538: The curiones was appointed or elected curio maximus , and presided over the assembly. Under the kings, the comitia curiata was summoned by the king or by an interrex , who would present questions upon which the comitia might vote. These included the election of a new king, as proposed by the interrex; the passing of a law conferring imperium on the king, known as a lex curiata de imperio ; whether to declare war; rulings on appeals; matters relating to arrogatio ; and whether to allow foreigners to be received among

2100-622: The first secession of the plebs , to protect the interests of the plebeians against the actions of the senate and the annual magistrates, who were uniformly patrician . The ancient sources indicate the tribunes may have originally been two or five in number. If the former, the college of tribunes was expanded to five in 470 BC. Either way, the college was increased to ten in 457 BC, and remained at this number throughout Roman history. They were assisted by two aediles plebis , or plebeian aediles. Only plebeians were eligible for these offices, although at least two exceptions existed. The tribunes of

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2200-463: The plebeians were included in voting, and this view now appears to have prevailed; the plebeians were included either from the beginning, or at least from an early date; certainly from the earliest years of the Republic. When the various curiae were assembled for voting, they formed the comitia curiata . It was founded under the kings and survived through to the end of the republic. One of

2300-409: The 2018 book Rise of Rome , attributes the popularity of the explanation to nationalist politics of the 19th and 20th centuries. These three tribes were in turn divided into thirty curiae , or wards, the organization of which is unclear. The etymology of the word may derive from co-viria – a gathering of men – with each group electing a leader, known as a curio . Among the curiones , one

2400-509: The Christ , by Lew Wallace , and The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas . Both novels involve characters affected by the life and death of Jesus , and were turned into epic films during the 1950s. Messala, the primary antagonist in Ben-Hur , was played by Stephen Boyd , while Marcellus Gallio, the protagonist of The Robe , was played by a young Richard Burton . In 445 BC, the tribunes of

2500-414: The Italians' war goal of gaining Roman citizenship. Sulla's dictatorship followed more domestic unrest after the war and was a culmination in this trend for violence, with his leading an army on Rome for the second time in a decade and purging his opponents from the body politic in bloody proscriptions . In the aftermath of Sulla's civil war and a decade of internecine conflict following the Social War,

2600-509: The Latin term tribunatus , meaning the office or term of a Roman tribunus (see above), was a collective organ of the young revolutionary French Republic composed of members styled tribun (the French for tribune), which, despite the apparent reference to one of ancient Rome's prestigious magistratures, never held any real political power as an assembly, its individual members no role at all. It

2700-456: The Romans fought the bloody Social War against their Italian allies, victorious mostly due to their immediate concession on the Italians' main war goal of gaining Roman citizenship. During his consulship in 88, Sulla had marched his army on Rome as consul and deposed the plebeian tribune Publius Sulpicius Rufus by force after Sulpicius induced the Assembly to reassign Sulla's command in

2800-413: The Romulean tribes appear to be Etruscan. Although the theory that the Romulean tribes represented the city's original ethnic components continues to be represented in modern scholarship, it has never been universally accepted, and this view is rejected by many scholars. This is because "the idea that the three tribes were distinct ethnic groups has no support in the ancient sources". Kathryn Lomas, in

2900-562: The Sabine Women, but of the nine curiae whose names are known today, several are of geographical origin. The only curiae whose names are now known were: Acculeia, Calabra, Faucia, Foriensis, Rapta, Tifata , Titia , Veliensis , and Velitia . In the past, it was widely believed that membership in the curiae was limited to the patricians , and that statements to the contrary, indicating that clientes were admitted meant no more than that they were passive members with no voting rights. However, Mommsen argued convincingly that

3000-509: The Senate from the list of citizens from 25 years up, and annually one fifth was renewed for a five-year term. When it opposed the first parts of Bonaparte's proposed penal code, he made the Senate nominate 20 new members at once to replace the 20 first opponents to his politic; they accepted the historically important reform of penal law. As the Tribunate opposed new despotic projects, he got

3100-408: The Senate in year X to allow itself to dissolve the Tribunate. In XIII it was further downsized to 50 members. On August 16, 1807, it was abolished and never revived. Roman tribes A tribus , or tribe , was a division of the Roman people for military, censorial, and voting purposes. When constituted in the comitia tributa , the tribes were the voting units of a legislative assembly of

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3200-449: The addition of Volscian territory in 358 BC, two more tribes were formed, Pomptina and Publilia (also found as Poblilia). In 332, the censors Quintus Publilius Philo and Spurius Postumius Albinus enrolled two more tribes, Maecia (originally Maicia) and Scaptia. Ufentina (or Oufentina) and Falerina followed in 318, and in 299 Aniensis and Terentina were added. The last two tribes, Quirina and Velina, were established in 241 BC, bringing

3300-520: The ancient Roman tradition, shortly after the founding of Rome , Romulus created the first three tribes: the Ramnes , Tities , and Luceres . The etymology of the Latin word tribus is unclear: it may relate to the word for three ( tres ) or a cognate in the Iguvine Tablets referring to the community as a whole. Others say the word instead is derived from tribuere , referring to divisions and distributions. Livy relates that after

3400-410: The beginning; but certainly there was a considerable Etruscan element in the Roman population by the sixth century BC; the fifth and seventh kings of Rome were Etruscan, and many of Rome's cultural institutions were of Etruscan origin. It may be to this period, rather than the time of Romulus, that the institution of the Luceres belongs; and indeed the names, if not the ethnic character, of all three of

3500-581: The blind daughter of "a man with tribunician power" ( vir tribunicae potestatis ). Being that the Roman Empire had withdrawn from Britain in AD 410, the use of this term may imply a continuation of some form of local Roman political system. There exists the possibility that this tribune had commanded a unit of the Roman army which had disbanded after the break with Rome, and was now occupying a more locally-granted appointment to help manage his city's defences. In

3600-417: The celeres, or tribune of the knights , was commander of the king's personal bodyguard, known as the celeres . This official was second only to the king, and had the authority to pass law, known as lex tribunicia , and to preside over the comitia curiata . Unless the king himself elected to lead the cavalry into battle, this responsibility fell to the tribune of the celeres. In theory he could deprive

3700-547: The centuries does not seem to have survived even Sulla's dictatorship, as he brought a law on the quaestorship before the tribes. Sulla settled instead on divesting the tribunes of their legislative initiative (see below) and allowing curule magistrates to call the tribes to hear legislative proposals. Consular legislation was rare before the Sulla's reforms, with most legislation being put by tribunes, but after Sulla, it became common to have consuls and praetors introduce bills before

3800-400: The citizens arranged by tribe. The first tribe to vote, known as the principium , was chosen by lot, and the result of its vote announced. The other tribes would then vote simultaneously, and the results of their votes announced in an order also determined by lot, before the final result was proclaimed. Laws passed by the comitia took effect as soon as the results were announced. Although

3900-411: The city itself, as well as a radius of one mile around. They had no power to affect the actions of provincial governors. The powers of the tribunes were severely curtailed during the constitutional reforms of the dictator Sulla in 81 BC. Although many of these powers were restored in further reforms of 75 BC and 70 BC, the prestige and authority of the tribunes had been irreparably damaged. In 48 BC,

4000-433: The city, made the body dysfunctional, difficult to influence, and unpredictable. Moreover, its larger size— [prevented the senate from being] a venue for serious political debate. An increase in the membership also fatally undermined the prestige of a body that had until then been far more exclusive. [Sulla's design was one] in which centre stage is taken up by elected, imperium -holding magistrates, who are in turn bound to

4100-404: The civil war, Pompey and Crassus in their consulships for 70, restored the plebeian tribunes to their historic powers and oversaw the reintroduction of elections to the censorship. The power to legislate was quickly seized again: a lex Plautia was passed in the same year granting a pardon to supporters of Lepidus' revolt in 78. The consulship of Pompey and Crassus in 70, however, was not

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4200-448: The consuls could repeatedly clash. The office of praetor also changed, put in charge of the courts during their magistracy before being sent to govern a province immediately afterwards. In the past, the senate had been composed of people recognised by the censors for their achievements in high office or of personal virtue; Sulla's lacked this, being composed mainly of his supporters and the winners of relatively undiscriminating elections to

4300-439: The consuls. The first tribuni militum consulare potestate , or military tribunes with consular power , were elected for the year 444. Although plebeians were eligible for this office, each of the first "consular tribunes" was a patrician. Military tribunes were elected in place of the consuls in half the years from 444 to 401 BC, and in each instance, all of the tribunes were patricians; nor did any plebeian succeed in obtaining

4400-519: The consulship. The number of tribunes increased to four beginning in 426, and six beginning in 405. At last, the plebeians elected four of their number military tribunes for the year 400; others were elected in 399, 396, 383, and 379. But apart from these years, no plebeian obtained the highest offices of the Roman State. The patricians' monopoly on power was finally broken by Gaius Licinius Calvus Stolo and Lucius Sextius Lateranus , tribunes of

4500-460: The courts, and those who acted for the res publica as magistrates. Such a system of oversight could only work effectively if the two groups remained separate, but there was continual traffic between the two groups, as men stood for office, were elected as magistrates, and then returned to the status of private individuals. And the larger size of the senate after Sulla's reforms, along with the increased number of imperium -possessing magistrates in

4600-610: The dictator Marcus Furius Camillus , the senate conceded the battle, and passed the Licinian Rogations . Sextius was elected the first plebeian consul, followed by Licinius two years later; and with this settlement, the consular tribunes were abolished. The exact nature of the Tribuni Aerarii , or Tribunes of the Treasury is shrouded in mystery. Originally they seem to have been tax collectors, but this power

4700-435: The dole. Later in that year, Lepidus raised an army against the senate and his colleague in response to obstruction against his political reforms. Sulla required the consuls to conduct affairs in the city; within two years, disagreements between the consuls had started another civil war. A few years later in 75, one of the consuls, Gaius Aurelius Cotta , lifted the bar on tribunes holding future office, to much acclaim from

4800-515: The early history of the Republic of Venice , during the tenure of the sixth Doge Domenico Monegario , Venice instituted a dual Tribunal modeled on the above Roman institution - two new Tribunes being elected each year, with the intention to oversee the Doge and prevent abuse of power (though this aim was not always successfully achieved). The " Tribunat ", the French word for tribunate, derived from

4900-417: The east to fight Mithridates . In his absence, Sulla and his supporters lost control of Rome, with Marius' return and election with Lucius Cornelius Cinna to the consulship. Marius died mere months into their joint consulship, but Cinna survived for four years (before being murdered by his troops), dominating Roman politics, killing his enemies, and inter alia driving Sulla's family to flee for safety in

5000-407: The east. Conventional republican government had collapsed after 88, and Sulla's civil war – triggered by his return from the east at the head of an army – was fought between "a rogue regime in the city and a rogue general Sulla, who intended to set up a new republic along very different lines". Already during the civil war, Sulla and others were discussing constitutional reform. In the event, Sulla

5100-488: The election of certain magistrates, religious officials, judicial decisions in certain suits affecting the plebs , and pass resolutions on various proposals made by the tribunes of the plebs and the higher magistrates. Although the comitia tributa lost most of its legislative functions under the Empire , enrollment in a tribe remained an important part of Roman citizenship until at least the third century AD. According to

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5200-610: The failure of republic as it had existed before Sulla's first consulship were the use of political violence and the ineffectiveness of the Roman elite to manage external threats. The civil war itself also did not end with the start of Sulla's new republic with his consulship in 80: various holdouts continued to resist Sulla's government, both in Spain and in Italy. With the Third Servile War against Spartacus ' slave revolt and

5300-649: The fall of the monarchy, the powers of the tribune of the celeres were divided between the Magister Militum , or Master of the Infantry, also known as the Praetor Maximus or dictator , and his lieutenant, the magister equitum or "Master of the Horse". The tribuni plebis , known in English as tribunes of the plebs, tribunes of the people, or plebeian tribunes, were instituted in 494 BC, after

5400-403: The four urban tribes were based on the four regions of the city that they represented, while those of the rural tribes were likely based on the names of families that owned considerable tracts of land in those areas. Each tribe was both a territorial and administrative unit, with officials called tribules who counted and facilitated the votes of tribe members. Another group of officials,

5500-531: The institution of the tribunes of the plebs in 494 BC, the comitia tributa was normally summoned by the tribunes themselves. Magistrates could also convene the comitia , but only with the consent of the tribunes. The comitia was summoned by the proclamation of a praeco , a crier or herald, at least seventeen days before the meeting. The auspices would be taken, and the meeting could only proceed if they were favourable. The tribes convened at daybreak, and were obliged to adjourn at sunset. If summoned by one of

5600-418: The king of his imperium , or authority to command, with the agreement of the comitia curiata . In the reign of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus , the last Roman king, this office was held by Lucius Junius Brutus , the king's nephew, and thus the senior member of the king's household, after the king himself and his sons. It was Brutus who convened the comitia and asked that they revoke the king's imperium. After

5700-410: The legality of the action before a magistrate could proceed. This power also allowed the tribunes to forbid, or veto any act of the senate or another assembly. Only a dictator was exempt from these powers. The tribunicia potestas , or tribunician power, was limited because it was derived from the people's oath to defend the tribunes. This limited most of the tribunes' actions to the boundaries of

5800-412: The makeup of the senate. The permanently larger senate guaranteed from the intake of the twenty annual quaestors reached a size of around 600. The nature of the senate in Sulla's regime also made it difficult for Sulla's system of law courts to function: It was composed of two groups with interchangeable membership and conflicting ambitions: those who policed the actions of the [republic's] agents through

5900-430: The names of the older rural tribes are those of patrician families, the tribes themselves were probably entirely plebeian until 449 BC, after which both patricians and plebeians were enrolled; before this time, many of the powers and responsibilities later held by the comitia tributa still belonged to the comitia curiata. While we know the origin of their names, the location of the territories which defined these tribes

6000-456: The new senators would likely never hold higher office and existed rather to serve as jurors in a large system of permanent jury courts. There would be at least seven courts, each under a praetor, with large juries to minimise the impact of bribery. In the past, from the time of the Gracchi onwards, these courts had been staffed by the equestrians, but the juries would be picked from members of

6100-506: The number of thirty wards, Servius Tullius established four tribes dividing Rome and various pagi over the countryside, which later became seventeen rural tribes. After the formation of the republic, these tribes were assembled into a popular assembly called the comitia tributa . As the Roman population and its territory grew, fifteen additional tribes were enrolled, the last in 241 BC. All Roman citizens were enrolled in one of these tribes, through which they were entitled to vote on

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6200-423: The number of tribes to thirty-five. The names of the various tribes vary, both due to scribal error and changes in Latin orthography. For example, the tribe Maecia must originally have been Maicia due to its abbreviation as Mai ; Crustumina and Clustumina are used interchangeably. With their usual abbreviations, the tribes were: The four urban tribes The rural tribes Although

6300-619: The office into a dead-end position with little power: their ability to veto public business was removed along with powers to propose legislation. Moreover, anyone elected to the tribunate was thence ineligible to future elected office. Their powers were reduced only to protecting citizens from a magistrate's arbitrary actions. The effects of these changes to the magistracies was profound. Citizens no longer would have tribunes call meetings, give political speeches, or vote on tribunician legislation. The process of electing magistrates, however, had little changed, with politicians still campaigning before

6400-431: The order of voting was determined by lot, there was also an official order of the tribes, known as the ordo tribuum . The first four tribes were the urban tribes, in the order: Suburana, Palatina, Esquilina, Collina; the rural tribes followed, concluding with Aniensis. In the final years of the Republic, participation in the comitia was quite low, and its acts increasingly the result of corruption . Caesar deprived

6500-493: The patricians, and it was through this comitia that the collective will of the citizens could be exercised without regard to wealth or status. The comitia tributa elected all of the lower magistrates, including the tribunes of the plebs , the military tribunes , the plebeian aediles and the curule aediles . A committee of seventeen tribes, chosen by lot, nominated the Pontifex Maximus , and coöpted members of

6600-511: The patricians. Under Servius Tullius , the rights to declare war and to decide appeals were transferred to the comitia centuriata , another legislative assembly. After the downfall of the Roman monarchy, questions were presented to the comitia curiata by the Roman Senate . However, between 494 and 449 BC, most of its functions were relegated to the comitia tributa and the comitia centuriata. The higher magistrates were elected by

6700-419: The people, who in 376 BC brought forward legislation demanding not merely that one of the consuls might be a plebeian, but that henceforth one must be chosen from their order. When the senate refused their demand, the tribunes prevented the election of annual magistrates for five years, before relenting and permitting the election of consular tribunes from 370 to 367. In the end, and with the encouragement of

6800-413: The people. He also made the traditional order in which offices were held ( Latin : cursus honorum , lit.   'course of honours') a legal requirement (e.g. to be elected consul, one had to have been praetor) and required a ten-year period between re-election to office with minimum ages to various offices. Among his other changes to elections, he neutered the plebeian tribunes , turning

6900-511: The people. And while the people had not lost their sovereign power to make laws, they instead "were simply called upon to ratify laws that had already been approved by the senate and that were proposed by the highest magistrates". Limits also were placed on the discretion of governors in the field. Instead of appointing them to wage a campaign of some sort, Sulla required them to go to a province, defined as specific geographic area, and then stay there without deviating from instructions provided by

7000-584: The people. Sulla's removal of the grain dole also increased tensions in Rome, with the consuls being attacked on the via Sacra over the price of grain. The next year, Lucius Quinctius , then-tribune of the plebs, agitated in the Forum to restore tribunician rights. Sulla's reforms to the grain dole were further abrogated in 73, with the consuls carrying a law authorising further grain purchases from Sicily while popular agitation for tribunician rights continued. Just eight years after his death, his lieutenants during

7100-403: The plebs had the power to convene the concilium plebis , or plebeian assembly, and propose legislation before it. Only one of the tribunes could preside over this assembly, which had the power to pass laws affecting only the plebeians, known as plebiscita , or plebiscites. After 287 BC, the decrees of the concilium plebis had the effect of law over all Roman citizens. By the 3rd century BC,

7200-405: The plebs succeeded in passing the lex Canuleia , repealing the law forbidding the intermarriage of patricians and plebeians, and providing that one of the consuls might be a plebeian. Rather than permit the consular dignity to pass into the hands of a plebeian, the senate proposed a compromise whereby three military tribunes, who might be either patrician or plebeian, should be elected in place of

7300-426: The power to confer imperium on magistrates elected by the comitia centuriata , and to confirm alterations in the Roman constitution decided upon by the other two comitia; both of these, however, required the senate to propose them before the comitia could act. The comitia also retained the power to decide whether to admit a non-patrician into that order, and to oversee the process of arrogatio, particularly when

7400-499: The quaestorship. Sulla's reforms also encompassed the voting structure of the comitia centuriata , which was changed to a state similar to that of the Servian organisation of the assembly, with more centuries reserved for rich citizens. He also, according to Appian, required that laws be brought before the centuries rather than the tribes and that they first receive the approval of the senate. The requirement to bring laws before

7500-400: The ranks of the equites and the nobles of Italian towns. Before his expansion, the senate's ranks were skeletally thin: of former consuls, a mere five were known to be alive and able to participate in 82. He also increased the number of quaestores elected per year from eight to twenty and making induction to the senate automatic with the holding of the quaestorship; this meant that many of

7600-644: The remaining tribes are all known. When the Sabine Appius Claudius removed to Rome together with his clientes , in 504 BC, he was admitted to the patriciate, and assigned lands in the region around the mouth of the Anio . These settlers became the basis of the tribus Claudia , which was admitted in 495 BC, during Claudius' consulship, and subsequently enlarged to become the tribus Crustumina or Clustumina . Four more tribes were added in 387 BC: Arniensis, Sabatina, Stellatina, and Tromentina. With

7700-478: The renewed threat from Mithridates , who Sulla had not defeated in the east, "[t]he feeling that the new republic was a failure was hard to escape". These issues were compounded by political unrest at the consular elections every year between 66 and 62 and the greater level of corruption engendered by Sulla's neutering of the traditional republican mechanisms of overseeing magistrates and governors. Sulla's changes also had longer term effects by permanently altering

7800-581: The republic had collapsed. Sulla attempted to resolve this crisis by embarking on a large reform programme inaugurating what he saw as a "new republic" empowering magistrates while holding them accountable to law enforced by permanent courts (with a larger senate to provide juries for those courts). His constitution would be mostly rescinded by two of his former lieutenants, Pompey and Crassus , less than ten years after his death. The mechanisms for accountability inherent to his reforms proved unworkable. Sulla's marches on Rome also had proved that accountability

7900-419: The respect of a set of laws. Far from being the champion of senatorial auctoritas [influence], Sulla took decisive steps for [its] political marginalization[.] Sulla's interruption in the regular election of censors and the censuses which they conducted also persisted: after the census authorised during the consulship of Pompey and Crassus in 70, the next completed census would have to wait until 28, when it

8000-399: The sacrosanctity of the tribunes might be killed without penalty. This was also the source of the tribunes' power, known as ius intercessionis, or intercessio, by which any tribune could intercede on behalf of a Roman citizen to prohibit the act of a magistrate or other official. Citizens could appeal the decisions of the magistrates to the tribunes, who would then be obliged to determine

8100-472: The senate and the people, decreed that citizens created by further territorial annexation would be registered in one of the rural tribes. Before this reform, the tribes had been relatively contiguous units; after it, they became geographically fragmented across Roman territory. After the Social War , which saw the enfranchisement of Rome's Italian allies and a massive increase in the citizen population, there

8200-434: The senate granted tribunician powers ( tribunicia potestas , powers equivalent to those of a tribune without actually being one) to the dictator Julius Caesar . Caesar used them to prevent the other tribunes interfering with his actions. In 23 BC, the senate granted the same power to Augustus , the first Roman emperor , and from that point onwards it was regularly granted to each emperor as part of their formal titles . Under

8300-443: The senate might review these resolutions, it could only reject them if they had been passed without the proper formalities. The comitia tributa also decided suits instituted by the plebeian tribunes and aediles, for offenses against the plebs or their representatives. In the later Republic, these suits typically involved charges of maladministration; the tribunes and aediles were entitled to levy substantial fines. Beginning with

8400-465: The senate until relieved. The penalties for breaking these laws (cf Caesar) were also severe. In the realm of religion, he repealed the lex Domitia de sacerdotiis of 104, which placed the election of priests into the hands of the people, returning to the older system of co-option. The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline hill, which had burnt down in 83, was rebuilt, named after

8500-446: The senate, debate in front of the people, and on elaborate rituals of compromise and consensus building in both settings". It, however, was also not an ideologically consistent set of reforms, acting ad hoc to address various different issues identified in the state. Sulla expanded the number of senators from some three hundred (before the civil war) to as many as six hundred, more than doubling its size, with new senators recruited from

8600-444: The senatorial class. The consequences of Sulla's changes to the senate resulted in a "two-tiered... system in which the inner circle of the powerful opinion makers... were separated from those who spent their lives as jurors". The leading senators holding magistracies also were to spend their year in office in the capital rather than commanding troops abroad, making senate debates far more formal and providing an environment in which

8700-430: The senatorial juries in holding magistrates and governors accountable was undermined by Sulla's own example in being entirely immune from accountability by successfully marching on Rome. In the year of his death, proposals were already being made to overturn Sulla's limitations on the popular tribunes. This extended to Sulla's grain dole reforms: co-consul Lepidus carried a bill without opposition reintroducing or expanding

8800-409: The tribe's soldiers. Membership in a tribe was prima facie proof of Roman citizenship and also formed the basis on which the army was levied. Toward the end of the Republic, the tribe became so important that it became an official part of a Roman's name, usually appearing, in the most formal documents and inscriptions, between a citizen's filiation and any cognomina. The dates of the creation of

8900-751: The tribes. Known as the three Romulean tribes , these first tribes have often been supposed to represent the major ethnic groups of early Rome with the Ramnes representing Rome's Latin population, the Tities representing the Sabines, and the Luceres probably representing the Etruscans . Rome lay on the Tiber , the traditional boundary of Etruria with Latium , and may have had a substantial Etruscan population from

9000-483: The tribunes could also convene and propose legislation before the senate. Although sometimes referred to as "plebeian magistrates," technically the tribunes of the plebs were not magistrates, having been elected by the plebeians alone, and not the whole Roman people. However, they were sacrosanct , and the whole body of the plebeians were pledged to protect the tribunes against any assault or interference with their persons during their terms of office. Anyone who violated

9100-657: The tribunes, the tribes had to gather within the city, or within a one-mile radius of the city; this was the boundary of a tribune's authority. In the first centuries of the Republic, the comitia usually met on the Capitol , in the Forum , or at the Comitium . If summoned by one of the magistrates, the comitia typically met on the Campus Martius . After a prayer, unaccompanied by sacrifice, proposals would be read, and

9200-409: The urban tribes. A similar attempt to limit the power of newly enfranchised citizens followed the end of the Social War. It was also possible for one of the censors to punish an individual by expelling him from one of the rustic tribes, and assigning him to one of the urban tribes; this was known as tribu movere . After 241 BC, no further tribes were created. Legislation, passed concurrently by

9300-480: Was a vigorous debate at Rome as to whether further tribes should be created, but it was eventually decided to register the new citizens in the existing thirty-five. In imperial times, the enrollment of citizens in tribes along a geographic basis was resumed; for instance, easterners were typically enrolled in the tribes Collina and Quirina, while in Gallia Narbonensis enrollment in the tribus Voltinia

9400-497: Was impossible to impose on a general with a sufficiently large army. Romans were, moreover, unable to accept as legitimate a set of reforms given by a self-appointed lawgiver under the threat of violence. Over the period from the violent death of Tiberius Gracchus in 133, Roman republican politics were becoming increasingly violent and discordant; at various times, force was used against political opponents to suppress political opposition. Shortly before Sulla's first consulship in 88,

9500-624: Was instituted by Napoleon I Bonaparte 's Constitution of the Year VIII "in order to moderate the other powers" by discussing every legislative project, sending its orateurs ("orators", i.e. spokesmen) to defend or attack them in the Corps législatif , and asking the Senate to overturn "the lists of eligibles, the acts of the Legislative Body and those of the government" on account of unconstitutionality. Its 100 members were designated by

9600-424: Was not ratified by the senate until 286 BC, but even before this its resolutions were considered binding on the plebs. Because all citizens, whether patrician or plebeian, received the same vote in the comitia tributa , and because the assembly was much simpler to convene than the comitia centuriata , the comitia tributa was Rome's most democratic assembly. By the end of the Republic, the plebs greatly outnumbered

9700-410: Was preferred. Together, the Servian tribes constituted the concilium plebis , or plebeian council; as time passed and the council's authority to pass legislation developed, it was increasingly known as the comitia plebis tributa , or tribal assembly. A law passed in 449 BC made resolutions of the comitia tributa , known as plebi scita , or plebiscites, binding upon the whole Roman people; this law

9800-422: Was selected as head of all the curiae, with the title curio maximus . The members of the curiae were known as curiales . Each curia was attended by a priest, or curio , who assisted by another priest, known as the flamen curialis , undertook the religious obligations of the ward. Each also had its own place of meeting, also known as a curia . The curiae were said to have been named after thirty of

9900-464: Was slowly lost to other officials. By the end of the Republic, this style belonged to a class of persons slightly below the equites in wealth. When the makeup of Roman juries was reformed in 70 BC, it was stipulated that one-third of the members of each jury should belong to this class. In his Vita Germani , a hagiography of St. Germanus of Auxerre , Constantius of Lyon writes that during his visit to Britain in AD 429, Germanus miraculously healed

10000-402: Was victorious over his enemies, and induced the passage of the lex Valeria creating him dictator legibus scribundis et rei publicae constituendae (dictator for the writing of laws and the regulation of the republic). Many newer studies from 1971 onwards "support the interpretation of [Sulla's] reform programme as a new republic rather than a restoration". The reforms "were dressed up as

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